Lumpini police said a 44 year old Italian man jumped to his death at Terminal 21 shopping center in Bangkok yesterday afternoon. 

Pol Capt Noppha Thongbar said that CCTV footage showed Federico Maistrello jumped as he was on an escalator going from the sixth to the fifth floor.

He fell to the ground floor in the central atrium in full view of shoppers.

A tent was erected around his remains.

Thai Rath reported that he was clad in a t-shirt, track-suit pants and sneakers.

He had small tattoos on both arms and a snake tattoo on his left shoulder.

He had a gold ring on the ring finger of his left hand.

He was in possession of his passport, a key, an air-ticket, chewing gum, loose tobacco and roller, and a quantity of Lorazepam.

Lorazepam is used to treat psychiatric disorders such as anxiety. It is also used to treat insomnia.

Thai Rath said that the authorities had contacted the Italian embassy.

Thaivisa notes that a man by this name has a Facebook account showing him as having a nickname in Thai as “Somchai”. He is pictured with a Thai woman in Bangkok.

It could not be confirmed if this was the same man.

Source: Thai Rath

Thai media has laid the blame for much of Thailand’s appalling motorcycle rider death toll at the door of bad brakes.

If all bikes had ABS systems thousands less could die every year, they reported.

Sanook said in their headline that the seven deadly days of New Year had shown that Thailand led the world in bike deaths with 80% of all victims on motorcycles.

They said that a million new bikes were hitting the roads each year but few had decent brakes.

Most of the ones fitted with ABS were exported.

They said that the antilock braking system would help riders even on slippery roads. Much of the problem was not bad riding but the brakes, they claimed.

Even experienced riders died as a result of bad brakes, they said.

Dr Wiwat Sitamanote who liaises between the government and the WHO said that Thais in general don’t realize the importance of good brakes. He said that accidents could be lowered by 33% with ABS.

Sanook said that two million bikes were produced in Thailand each year but half of those were exported with many having ABS.

Theerapong Rortprasert of the Communications Ministry said that moves were being made to force manufacturers to install ABS on bikes for the Thai market.

He said that at least 6,000 and 9,000 lives could be saved over a five year period if all bikes had the system.

Source: Sanook

A 53-year-old Thai man shot dead his wife allegedly over a fear that she would cheat on him before turning the gun on himself in their rented home in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district, police said on Wednesday.

Following the 6am report of two bodies’ discovery, Muang Samut Sakhon superintendent Pol Colonel Jirawuth Tanthasri, a medical examiner and rescue workers visited the two-storey house in tambon Mahachai.

They found the body of van driver Sitthichai Tathong, 53, with a single gunshot wound to the head and a .38 pistol in his hand and another .32 pistol on the floor.

In the same bedroom, police found the dead body of Sitthichai’s wife, Worawan Tathong, 53, on the floor with six gunshot wounds on her body. Police collected six spent .32 cartridges.

Another van driver Wanchai Saodan, 54, told police that the couple often argued. Sitthichai lived at the house with his wife and two children while Wanchai lived in the back of the house and parked his van there. Sitthichai also served as the head of Mahachai-Victory Monument transport van stand.

The couple’s son Thapakorn Tathong, 26, who was working elsewhere at the time of the shooting, told police that he received a farewell message from his father so he rode his motorcycle back but he was too late. He said Sitthichai suffered from depression but refused to seek medical help while he often argued with Worawan over jealousy. He insisted his mother had done nothing wrong.

The couple’s bodies were sent for an autopsy and would later be released to the family for the religious rites.

Source: The Nation

Police suspect a brutal revenge style murder after finding a corpse weighed down by a concrete post in the Mekong River at Nakhon Phanom.

The dead man had white skin and is believed to be a foreigner, possible Vietnamese.

Nakorn Panom police at the scene in Ban Samran Neua, Muang district, found the 30-40 year old victim in a sack that was comprised of three parts that had been joined by wire. The body had been in the water at least 48 hours.

The face had been mercilessly attacked making it unrecognizable. The abdomen had been ripped out with what looked like an axe and the body – 170 cm in height – was tied with hemp rope and weighed down with a one meter piece of concrete post.

The hands were handcuffed at the front of the body.

Pol Col Kiatphoom said that the vicious nature of the man’s death indicated a revenge killing involving a possible double-cross.

A full autopsy is being carried out in Khon Kaen as investigations into the identity of the victim continue.

Source: Sanook